A scary paranoid thought might suggest that statistically everything is much more reliable, and much easier to operate, and therefore negates the need for a skilled person...
You are right. Friend of mine is senior instructor type at Boeing. We discussed this automation v manual skills and the perceived need to keep up handling skills to prevent their atrophy. The operative word is "perceived". I was then told the 787 (for example) was designed on the assumption it will be flown by incompetent pilots.
Like all the current wide-bodies, the crews will sometimes include very low hour first officers who are second in command and in theory "qualified" to take over and save the day if the captain becomes incapacitated. Thus the computers will not allow the aircraft to stall and you cannot do steep turns because the computers won't let you.